Source Note: Is Organic Worth it ?

Title: Organic products win favour. . . . but it’s at a price (April, 2007).

Summary:

On April 22nd 2007,The Sunday Mail published a story by MIchelle Collins, that took and objective look at the pros and cons of buying organic.

Topic: Sustainable Agriculture

Category: Mainstream Journalistic

What is it? This was a newspaper article in The Sunday Mail

Publication Information:

Newspaper article, The Sunday Mail (Australia) April 22, 2007 Sunday

http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/

Author: Michelle Collins 

Location: The Sunday Mail

Accessed: 1/30/2009 12pm

Support:

A independent survey of food selling last week in a Brisbane supermarket (Australia)

Choice magazine

The Flannery Group

Flannery Group Managing director Martin Meek

The Sunday Mail

These sources are working together to provide look into organic products and how they compare to generic products. All four sources helped contribute to an extensive test between un-organic and organically grown products, comparing taste, nutrition and price. The test’s goal was to give a fair comparison between the two products and help consumers make informed decisions.

Source Analysis:

The Sunday Mail is owned by News Corp and has a slightly conservative tone. Its is the third most read newspaper in Australia with over a million readers and is published by Queensland Newspapers.The Sunday Mail receives an average of 14.4 K online hits a month. 

Usefulness:

This source is coming from a newspaper that is owned by a conservative parent company which results in them being less than supportive of organic farming and the upheaval of the existing commercial farming industry. This article is trying to reach the general public and inform them of the myths behind organic farming and the higher prices they will undoubtedly  pay. This piece and the surveys within it make the case that organic products do not taste better and are over priced. But it also points out that the price of generic fruit and vegetables is not reflected at the super market. Soil and ground water contamination along with high rates of cancer among farm hands do not raise the price of a tomato, but natural farming methods do.

Work Cited:

The Sunday Mail

News Corp

quantcast.com

google.com

wikipedia

beyondpesticides.org

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2 Responses

  1. [...] consumer. The questions that this piece raises have much the same tone as Michelle Collins article Is Organic Worth it ? in  The Sunday [...]

  2. [...] Departement of Environmental Protection. This article serves an effective rebuttal to Michelle Collins’ story in The Sunday Mail in which she implies that organic products are doomed because of their higher prices. [...]

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